Making It Work: The Educational Labor of Teachers of Adult English Language Learners

• In Event: 43.074 - Aspects of Teacher's Work and Learning in Canadian Schools

Abstract

This paper presents numerical and descriptive data from a survey of 101 teachers of adult English language learners in British Columbia, Canada. The work of teaching English as an additional language to adults has long been precarious in North America. The study aims to better understand how teachers experience this work, examines practices that contribute to employment insecurity in this sector, and explores possibilities for more sustainable educational practices. Findings presented in this paper illustrate how work insecurity plays out in teachers’ personal and professional lives and how educational policies and practices in this sector act to intensify the labour of these educators, with consequences for the quality of education for students and for the health and well-being of teachers.

Author

• Sherry D Breshears, Simon Fraser University